The African Leaderships Centre (ALC) places value on the practice of leadership and on practitioner reflections, seeing it as a tool that assists the entirety of learning as well as research. As a result, the Practice of Leadership programme was created as a component of both the research and degree programmes, existing to bring the experiences of leaders in the field of peace, security and development to the fore of research and learning.

Exposing students, fellows and researchers of the African Leadership Centre to these first-hand experiences of leadership in the field, we hope to strengthen theoretical analysis of leadership at the nexus of security and development and to document these experiences for future leaders.As part of the programme, the African Leadership Centre invites leading policy practitioners to participate in research and teaching, giving students and Fellows access to these practitioners through seminars and reflection sessions, while providing the practitioners the opportunity to reflect on their experiences.

For easier documentation of practitioner reflections, an ALC Fellow will be designated to serve as Aide to each practitioner who will also serve as mentor to ALC Fellows. This will invariably enhance analysis of the experiences and learning for future use.

The programme aims to address how leadership practices and processes can facilitate or impede efforts at building and sustaining peace. In doing so, it poses a range of questions, from which answers will be drawn through the reflections of the practitioners. As a final part of the programme a publication will be produced, documenting the interactions between the fellows, researchers and practitioners to serve as a teaching and training tool for the Centre in addition to dissemination across a network of researchers and policy practitioners.

2016 Leading Practitioners

The ALC targets practitioners who have held lead roles in peace processes in areas affected by conflict across Africa. This year, the African Leadership Centre is pleased to welcome as Visiting Professors to the King's College London and the African Leadership Centre, two Leading Practitioners:

Fasakin is an alumnus of the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London where he completed the Fellowship programme for young African scholars. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Akindbode holds two Master of Science (MSc.) degrees in Security, Leadership and Society, and International Relations from King’s College London and Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy, Ile-Ife respectively.

His contributions to knowledge are in published articles and book chapters including: “State and Democratisation in Nigeria” in Democracy and Security (2015), “Opposition or Opportunism? Political Parties and the Consolidation of Liberal Democracy in Nigeria” in Cuttington University Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (2015) and “Leadership and National Security: An Interrogation of the Boko Haram Violence” in African Security Review (forthcoming). Other works such as “NGOs and Civil Corruption in Nigeria’s Public Sphere” (2012) and “Africa and the Myth of Globalisation in the 21st Century” are published as book chapters in edited books.

Akinbode participated as a Laureate of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Gender Institute 2013 and was recently recognised as a Carnegie Corporation of New York Scholar at the 58th Annual meeting of the African Studies Association in San Diego, California, USA. His research interests cut across democracy in Africa, democratisation processes, leadership in Africa, national security and security sector governance.

The African Leadership Centre has designated Akinbode a Leading Practitioner’s Aide to General Martin Agwai on the Centre’s Leadership and Peacebuilding programme.

Albert Poliquen Mbiatem

Albert Mbiatem is an alumnus of the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London and a PhD student at the University of Dschang, Cameroon. In parallel, he works occassionally with the Good Governance Counsel – a civil society organization based in Cameroon. He is the founding president of the Cameroon Association of Young political Scientists. As a fellow of the African Leadership Centre, Mbiatem was attached for six months to the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) in Ethiopia upon completion of a one-year period of study at King’s College London. He took part as a reader in the evaluation of applications for the 2016 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.

Mbiatem formerly served as a research assistant at the University of Buea where he conducted social science related research and tutorial sessions on international relations modules. He has also taught French language at Saint Francis Higher Institute and Mount Cameroon Academic and Sporting Centre respectively. Mbiatem holds a Master of Science with distinction in Security, Leadership and Society from King’s College London.

Prior to this, he had obtained a Master of Science in Political Science/International Relations from the University of Buea, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Political Science from the University of Yaounde II and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science also from University of Buea. His main areas of interest are: leadership, peace, security, governance, elections and regional integration.

The African Leadership Centre has designated Albert to serve as Aide to Leading Policy Practitioner, Dr. Youssef Mahmoud, on the Centre’s Leadership and Peacebuilding programme.